Mothering Contexts Study

Welcome! Thanks for checking out my blog and the mothering contexts study. I will have the on-line survey up and running this weekend for MOTHER'S DAY (a little past my May 4th 2009 initial launch date!).

Please try again to access the survey. For now, please feel free to navigate through my blog, the old posts and find out a little more about me and my work.

The study is intended to hear mothers' voices and provide narratives of women's lives as mothers. I will pay particular attention to the ideas, understandings and discourses they draw on to explain their mothering, the behaviours and practices they engage in with their children and outside of their children's lives, and the wider societal and cultural context of mothering. It is my hope that this research would be appealing to all mothers, especially those of us who are questioning how our mothering role is and is not related to other aspects of our multi-dimensional lives.

Research Objective
My objective is to examine the experience of mothering in the various contexts of women’s lives. Stated different, this research explores the situated nature of mothering and the ways in which mothering contexts influence maternal identities and maternal practices. The following questions will guide my research: What does motherhood look like in North America today? What are women’s experiences of mothering? What interactions characterize motherhood? What unique identities do mothers develop? What "cultural scripts" and wider understandings do women use to make sense of their mothering practices? How are mother(ing) experiences connected to the particular context (structural/relational) that women find themselves; that is, mothers living poverty, immigrant mothers, stay-at-home mothers, non-custodial mothers, lesbian mothers, young mothers, mothers with careers etc. and the list goes on!

What are the differences in our experience of motherhood?
What are the similarities in our experiences of motherhood?

WHAT CONNECTS US AS MOTHERS?

If you are interested in taking part in an in-person interview, please contact me through the comment function on this post and we can discuss a mutually agreeable plan.

Thanks very much for your assistance, support and involvement.

Sincerely,
Dr. Mama (aka Joanne)

Who Said I Couldn't Do It All?

I feel empowered and inspired lately - to do more, to be more, to give more, to care more, to risk more, to try more, and to make the biggest mark I can make in the lives of my children, DOAD and the world. I want to push farther, to challenge myself further, to dig deeper (could I talk in more colloquialisms?)

Seriously, I keep bombarding myself with new ideas, be it visions of new projects, new businesses, new groups or ways to develop, improve upon or otherwise re-create things I am already involved in.

I feel so much in control (now, that is). I wonder, though, who ever said I COULD have it all? Was it me?

Could I have TOO much excitement for everything BIG and be missing what is little, everyday, mundane, even tedious?

Then, fear/doubt/guilt attempts to alter my course... who am I to think I can change the world? Who am I to think I can live a life extraordinary?

I AM THAT GIRL

D-Clutter

I am on a rampage - a de-luttering one, that is! Everything seems packed with STUFF. Some I want. Some I don't. Some I care about. Some I really, really DON'T.

It started with the pantry, then the cupboards, back to the pantry, upstairs to check on my boys, back down, stare at dishes in the sink, then the ones still not put away from the dishwasher...

Oh, right I was trying to minimize the distractions, wasn't I?

Better get back.

Still Breathing...

Crazy
Swamped
Run Down
Run

Sane
Above Water
Running Away

Running Toward...

More than one week

I let the blog go more than one week from an entry, which I have tried not to do.

5 Things That Make Me Smile

1. My children laughing
2. My husband's face
3. Listening to my son read to me
4. Hearing "I love you"
5. Discovering something new

If penguins come from other penguins...

then what about those penguins?

B1 casually asked me this one morning when I was rushing off to work. Knowing my audience - a 5 1/2 year old, and an analytic one at that - I tried to be clear, accurate and honest.

Well, sweetie that is an excellent, very intelligent question, I begin...

I went into some details about 1) evolution, science and talked about birds adapting; 2) creation, religion and talked about a spirit greater than any one of us.

I am very interested in hearing from other moms (those scientifically, spiritually inclined or both) about similar queries and how they have handled it. It begs larger questions about what we are teaching children about our world and their place in it. To what extent are we reinforcing our own position about that world and perhaps limiting the ways in which they can engage with it.

What a shame if in our attempts to do our best at parenting we close off possibility for them (i.e. God created everything [period] or There is no spiritual force that influences nature [period]). Shouldn't childhood be about exploration and discovery. In retrospect, I wish I wasn't so anxious with proceeding with my answer, and had spent some time asking him about his.

In the end (of that conversation at least), he was satisfied that I explained two main answers to the question and suggested that it is possible to believe in both!

Calling all moms: How do you handle the BIG questions in ways that encourage your children to keep asking the little ones?

Simultaneous

Simultaneous-
thoughts, emotions, questions
Am I where I'm supposed to be?

Simultaneous-
expectations, needs, contexts
Each making demands of me

Simultaneous-
responsibilities, tasks, roles
Exerting pressure - sucking life,
some I refuse to even see

Simultaneous-
responsibilities, tasks, roles
Providing presence - giving life,
some I cannot even see

Simultaneous- a fiction?
mind
body
spirit
How can I be all three?